Maria had also seen the screenshot of the chat asking for her to disclose her class, but she didn't pick up on that topic and decided to just play it stupid like she didn't see that part of the chat because she was hunting.
It was a legacy class so it was a unique class in all of Unitale. Only a single player could inherit the class and Maria was that single player in the entire game who could ever become a Dark Priestess.
She wasn't going to disclose this information since it was much too important. She could tease everyone about her equipment set since it was visible to them, but not something like that. She already saw that most people were confused about what her true class was.
At the moment, many speculated that she was some kind of dark faction paladin class since she could heal like a priest, use powerful attack skills like a knight or warrior, and even had the signature skill of Fallen Paladin, [Ruin].
Ruin was a skill that most dark faction users had if they class-changed to a class related to the dark faction's church. Maria's [Ruin] skill, although it had a similar name and chant, was much different than the typical [Ruin] skill that most users knew of.
Hers was a complete upgrade of the [Ruin] skill since it had a larger AOE and damage output. Everyone thought that this was probably an item effect that boosted the effectiveness of magical spells.
Some people did recall her being dragged into the magic tower by some child-like NPC who everyone later found out was actually the Archmage of the North, Paimon.
If Maria had a quest related to such a figure, there was no reason to doubt that she had most likely received a magic-related item and this item was what boosted her magical skills' effectiveness.
Many mages in the audience were naturally envious of this and they decided to research more into the quests that the Archmage would give so that they could obtain the item themselves. Too bad for them, the Archmage was an illustrious character in the game and he wouldn't meet with just anyone.
In fact, as far as anyone was aware of, to this date Maria was the only person who had met Paimon. Some people brought this up and even used the donation button to send messages, but Maria just glossed over it during her break.
Now that, her break was over, she once again informed her chat that she wouldn't have any time to read the chat anymore since she was about to enter a boss battle.
It was against the field boss Twin-headed Mountain Ogre, Orh'bankhur. There was some history about this monster, but Maria didn't care about that. All she saw was a large sack of experience and entertainment waiting for her.
"I'll be doing this boss raid solo so please bear with me if it takes too long~" Maria said this to her chat as her final words before she closed it and focused her attention back on the game.
She and her party walked over to the flat plateau of the mountain where a small ogre village was located on. Maria could see that the settlement was indeed small and only ogres lived in the village.
A large twin-headed ogre was roaming around the center of the settlement and this was her target.
She ordered Alexa, Ash, and Little Red to watch the periphery of the village and prevent any monsters from coming in or out. Little Red was accompanied by Alexa since Maria knew that the two couldn't possibly solo any of the monsters at their current level.
Ash alone was able to watch the periphery of the village but Maria made sure that he left a small portion of the perimeter to the 2 so that they could fight and gain experience to level up.
Maria proceeded towards the village alone, but this time Calamity was in its ax-form and she shouldered it menacingly. There were some ogres near the entrance of the village that were acting as guards and when they saw the small 6-winged creature approaching their village radiating such an oppressive aura, they began roaring at her in warning.
As she got closer, a system window suddenly appeared in front of her with a nice jingle sound.
*DING*
You have discovered the secret ogre settlement, Mountain Creek Village! Reward: +100 Reputation
"Hm?"
Maria's attention was immediately directed towards the loud booming sounds that came right after the system window appeared.
"Oh?"
Ogre Chieftain, Orh'bankhur has detected your presence! You are subjected to Giant's Might and afflicted with [Fear]!
Title: Queen of the Dire, has lifted all mind-related debuffs! You have resisted. You have resisted.
A continuous stream of message windows popped up in front of Maria, saying that she resisted the [Fear] debuff from the boss monster which was quickly approaching. Apparently, the boss's skill, [Giant's Might] grew stronger the closer the monster was to the afflicted.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
However, because of Maria's title, even when the ogre finally stood right in front of Maria, she still resisted the [Fear] debuff from the ogre. She had turned off her [Battle Logs] when the noisy sounds started and just waited in anticipation for the ogre to come out and greet her.
"Ahh, finally. You're here! For a big guy, it sure took you long enough!" Maria said and swung her ax down, destroying the patch of land in front of her.
"Orgh..."
Maria was just about to fly up and attack the ogre, but she stopped when she heard words coming out of its mouth.
"Little one...why you, here?" The left head of the ogre asked.
Maria was surprised so she had no choice but to stop. She stabbed her ax into the ground looked up at the ogre.
"You can talk?"
"Answer question..." This time, it was the right head of the ogre who spoke.
Maria crossed her arms and gestured for the ogre to bend down.
"Hey, get your face down here. It's hard for this queen to constantly look up while talking to you!"
"?"
"?"
The two heads looked confused for a bit but the ogre dropped the two blades, hammer, and ax it was holding in all four of its arms and bent down. The ogre dropping its weapons kicked up the dust and dirt around her but Maria used only a flap of her wings to push the dust and dirt away.
With its faces now lowered, Maria nodded in satisfaction. She didn't know whether the ogre was stupid or smart. Her ax was right within arms-length. If she wanted to, she could easily grab it and attack at least one of the heads.
But, Maria thought it was interesting to see a monster she could talk with. Also, the monster's nametag was colored yellow instead of the usual white or grey that was the indicator of any monster or boss monster. Only a few would have colored names, but there was a clear difference between an NPC's and a monster's colors.
Boss monsters had bold grey or white letters but the yellow indicated that the monster was an NPC, not just a monster. Only the other ogres in the village had grey names to them, indicating that they were mobs from Maria's perspective.
Maria did notice that Ork'bankhur was an ogre much larger than the rest. He was at least half a size larger than the other ogres and both its heads had two horns growing out of them.
"So, what's your name?" Maria asked.
"Me, Orh'bankhur. You, answer question!"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm here to slaughter you and everyone else here. You got a problem with that?"
Hearing her straightforward answer, Orh'bankhur was stunned for a moment before asking, "Name?"
"Maria. You wanna fight now?"
"...Orh'bankhur, not want fight. If not needed..."
"A monster that doesn't want to fight? You sure are funny~"
"..."
*DING*
Requirements met! Random Faction Quest generated! Quest: Faction Quest Description: Orh'bankhur, leader of the Mountain Blade Ogres does not wish to fight. Option 1: Attack and form a hostile relationship with the Ogres of the Blood Rock Mountain Range
Option 2: Leave the ogres and retain your neutrality with them
Option 3: Recruit the ogres into your faction forming a friendly relationship with them
*DING*
Random Faction Quest has been initiated! What you select next will affect your situation! Quest: Faction Quest Description: As a faction leader, you have the authority to recruit NPCs belonging to small or large groups. Certain hidden requirements must be met before any of these special events occur!
Then a small window popped up in the next moment which listed the requirements she needed to recruit the mountain ogres into her faction. The hidden requirements became visible only because she had fulfilled them and they weren't all too hard to fulfill in Maria's opinion.
Mountain Ogre Recruitment Requirements:
1. Level higher than 50 but lower than 90 [Level 66]
2. Reputation: 2000+ [5800]
3. Neutral Faction Leader [The Dire: Neutral-Fallen Faction]
4. Defeated 500 Blood Rock Mountain Range Monsters [967/500] All conditions have been met!
A new message window that she's never seen before suddenly popped up. Maria took a few seconds to read it and thankfully, the window wasn't visible to the audience due to the privacy options she had on so no one caught on that she was able to recruit the monster.
Maria thought that it was interesting that such an option appeared. If she wasn't a faction leader, this may not have appeared and Orh'bankhur may have acted like any other boss monster that would have immediately attacked her.
"Hmm, this place looks bleak but habitable. I'm a queen so don't you join me?"
"Queen? You?"
"Yes, me. I'll gladly be your tribe's queen as well. You look like powerful people and I like powerful and capable subordinates!"
"Fight!" Both the heads said in unison.
"Eh?"
Maria thought that she had definitely picked the third option so she wondered why they were going to fight now.
The ogre got up and grabbed all 4 of its weapons from the ground. Another system window popped up and Maria finally knew why she had to fight.
Faction Quest Update! Ogre Chieftain, Orh'bankhur the Halfblood, challenges you to a duel! Subdue him and the ogres of Mountain Creek village will join your faction!
"Hahahaha~ just this is just how I wanted it to be!" Maria said gleefully with a laugh.